The history of the Tour de France THE STORY Race Greg LeMond, shot tragically in a hunting accident over the winter, cannot defend his Tour title. Bernard Hinault has since retired and Laurent Fignon is still not 100%. As a result, the 1987 Tour is wide open. Nevertheless there is a fierce fight for the yellow jersey between Spain's Pedro Delgado and Ireland's Stephen Roche. Delgado is slightly superior in the mountains, but Roche tops the Spaniard in the time trials to become the first Irishman to win the Tour. Exploit When Bernard Hinault retired, he proclaimed that a certain Jean-François Bernard would be his heir to French Tour glory. Bernard, responded forcefully in the 1987 Tour with stunning wins in the Mount Ventoux time trial and the final Dijon time trial. He even wore the yellow jersey for a day. But alas, that would be the only yellow jersey he ever wore, as injuries would plague the rest of his career and compromise his chances. Short history Pilgrimage in Karlsruhe, the bicycles cradle. First Polish yellow jersey: Piasecki.

Last rider: Hermans (135th), 4 h 23 min. 30 sec. behind. Event Jean-François Bernard, in top shape, loses any chances of being a real threat after a puncture in the Valréas - Villard-de-Lans stage. Tour start in Berlin, Germany; five towns host the Tour for the first time. In the world Fred Astaire dies; the stock market plummets on Wall Street; Van Gogh's "Irises" sells for $53,900,000; Wim Wenders directs the lyrical film "Wings of Desire." Ireland’s Tour de France History | Irish Peloton July 15, 2010 by Irish Peloton Ireland’s Tour de France History Luxembourg only have five riders currently racing on Pro Tour teams. Of these five, three of them are among the best in the world, Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck and Kim Kirchen. They have each won one of cycling’s classics, they have each won a stage of the Tour de France and they have each worn the yellow jersey.

The fact that they have managed to produce such riders is made all the more remarkable due to the fact that the country has a population of only half a million people with a land mass comparable to that of County Meath. Frank Schleck had the misfortune of crashing out on the cobbled Stage 3 of this year’s Tour and has recently released a picture of his devastated shoulder. One of Kim Kirchen’s major goals for the year was to be the Tour de France, but he was unable to take part for a very sobering reason. He suffered a heart attack on the 18th June and as a result was placed in an induced coma. He was released from hospital last week and it is not clear when or if Kirchen will return to professional cycling. This leaves Andy Schleck as the sole representative of Luxembourg in this year’s Tour de France which he is hoping to win. He is currently the leader of the race and should he wear the yellow jersey all the way to Paris he will become the 4th Luxembourg rider to do so after François Faber (1909), Nicolas Frantz (1927,1928) and most recently Charly Gaul (1958).

It is a very rich Tour history for such a small nation. As a small country on the outskirts of the cycling stronghold of mainland Europe, Ireland can be equally as proud of its own history in the Tour de France. Only eight Irish riders have ridden the Tour in the past, but half of whom have won a stage in the race. Ireland’s first ever Tour competitor was Séamus Elliott in 1956, a race which he did not finish. However he was to return again in 1958 when he took 48th overall bagging five top 10 stage placings along the way, including a 2nd place finish behind the Dutch rider Gerrit Voorting. Elliott went on to take part in six Tours de France altogether, finishing three of them. His career defining moment came in the 1963 Tour when he won the 3rd Stage which finished in Roubaix. By winning the stage he also took over the race leader’s yellow jersey, becoming only the second rider outside of mainland Europe to do so, after the British Tom Simpson had achieved the feat the year before.

Elliott went on that year to help his team mate Jacques Anquetil win his 4th Tour de France. After Seamus Elliott rode his last Tour in 1964 there was a gap of 14 years before another Irishman entered the race. This was the formidable Sean Kelly who burst on to the scene in 1978 by winning a stage in his first Tour de France. Kelly was best known for his classics victories but he also had an immense record in the Tour. He finished the race in 7th place in 1983, 5th in 1984 and 4th in 1985. He also won five stages of the Tour, surprisingly his last came as far back as 1982. But five stage wins doesn’t adequately illustrate the prominence with which Kelly presented himself at the Tour. He finished in the top 10 of a Tour stage on more than 100 occasions. In 1985 he finished 2nd on an agonising five stages, and finished 3rd on a further four.

In 1984 he racked up a remarkable 16 top 10 placings and yet unbelievably he was pipped for the Green Jersey competition on the final day by the Belgian Frank Hoste. However he did win the Green Jersey as the winner of the points classification four times, which was a Tour record until Erik Zabel went one better in 2000. He also won the intermediate sprints competition on a record three occasions. A record which is likely to stand forever as this contest was rendered defunct after 1989. In 1983 he wore the yellow jersey for one day. A day which he claims to be one of the proudest of his career despite the fact he suffered terribly over the Pyreneean climbs of the Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde. Sean Kelly sparked off a golden era for Irish cycling. For the ten years between 1983 and 1992, Ireland had at least two riders competing in every Tour de France. One of the riders present in all but one of these years was of course Stephen Roche.

The man from Dublin won the Tour in 1987 beating off the challenge of Pedro Delgado and Jean-François Bernard. He also finished on the podium in 1985 only four and a half minutes behind the winner Bernard Hinault and less than three minutes behind second placed Greg LeMond. He won four individual stages over the years, along with a team time trial win in his triumphant Tour in 1987. His last stage win, and Ireland’s last, came 18 years ago in 1992. Roche also finished in 9th place overall that year. Throughout these wonderful years for Kelly and Roche, three other Irishmen also rode in the Tour de France. The most successful was undoubtedly the bespectacled Martin Earley who, whilst riding for Sean Kelly’s PDM team in 1989 became the fourth man from Ireland to win a stage in the Tour. The pair of them also helped PDM win the team classification that year. In total Earley rode eight Tours de France, finishing five of them. Paul Kimmage, now a famous journalist rode the Tour in 1986, 1987 and 1989.

He finished the race at his first attempt taking two top 10 stage placings along the way. In 1991, Stephen Roche started the Tour with his brother Lawrence in his team alongside him. Kelly and Earley also started the Tour that year. Of the four, Lawrence Roche was the only one of them to make it to Paris. After Stephen Roche rode his last Tour de France in 1993 there was another lull in terms of an Irish presence in the race. It wasn’t until 2003 that national interest returned when former Junior World Champion Mark Scanlon took to the startline for the French AG2R team. He finished in a creditable 89th place. Then last year the third Roche to ride the Tour, Nicolas, revived the Irish presence in the race once again. He rode strongly throughout, defending the yellow jersey of his team mate Rinaldo Nocentini for over a week and he even took 2nd place on the stage to Besançon. Despite not riding specifically for the G.C. he finished his first Tour de France in an impressive 23rd position.

This year however, Roche has expressed his desire to put in a strong G.C. performance. Until the race reached the high mountains, Roche had maneuvered himself into 8th place overall. A couple of tough days in the Alps saw him drop to 17th place, but a cheeky breakaway toward the end of Stage 10 allowed him to claw back over a minute and he moved up again in the G.C. It would have been marvelous to have had Roche, Deignan and Martin all competing in the Tour this July. But Roche, like Andy Schleck, is doing a fine job of flying the flag solo for a country which has had a vast influence on this grandest of Grand Tours. He currently sits in 13th place overall, the same position his father finished in his last Tour 17 years ago. If he was to stay in 13th until Paris he will have achieved his goal of a top 15 place and he will have written another line in the proud history of Irish riders in the Tour de France.

The Tour de France I love and hate The Tour de France I love and hate Close Rupert has reported cycling since 1984, first covering the Tour de France in 1987. He lived in Belgium and France from 1987 to 1996, covering every major cycling race, and returns to Europe regularly to write about the sport. A book author and former sports writer with The Sydney Morning Herald - reporting on cycling, rugby union, rowing and sailing - but some might argue that he is best known for his taste (or lack of it) in Hawaiian shirts. comment It was a wire agency report on the fifth stage of the 1981 Tour de France that planted the seed of my interest in the race that has drawn me back for all but two of the past 30 years. That report was about Phil Anderson, then 23 and two years into his professional career on the French Peugeot team. In that fifth stage on June 30, he became the first Australian to claim the Tour leader's yellow jersey - the maillot jaune - and the first non-European to do so.

As memorable as his feat, was how he claimed the yellow jersey; and then, who he beat to do it; that being, the French hero and eventual five-time Tour winner, Bernard Hinault. A fan cheers wildly during the 2014 Tour de France. LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images Richie Porte Diary - I am a contender The stage from Saint Gaudens to Pla d'Adet in the Pyrenees was won by Belgian Lucien Van Impe. Behind Van Impe, Anderson was fighting all the way to the mountain finish with Hinault; the Australian was remarkably oblivious to the charismatic but fiery Frenchman's legendary stature. Unwittingly, Anderson even insulted Hinault, offering him a drink as they went pedal stroke for pedal stroke; Hinault swiped it to the ground, letting Anderson know how he took it. For the French media, Anderson's audacity to take on Hinault, who was then a two-time Tour champion, who went on to win the 1981 race, was a major story.

Anderson went on to finish 10th overall in that 1981 Tour, but his ride that day was only a sign of the things to come in a career that saw the Australian go on to finish in the top 10 five times, including fifth twice. Phil Anderson (Panasonic) in action during the 1985 Tour de France. Gilbert Iundt; Jean-Yves Ruszniewski/TempSport/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images My knowledge of the Tour then was drawn only from a slide that my French teacher at school had shown in a class one day. It was probably taken in the 1970s, of fans happily cheering the peloton from their roadside table that was laden with baguettes, cheeses and wine. But the theatre of Anderson's breakthrough in the 1981 Tour -- how he, 'the Pauper', took on and beat Hinault, 'the King' -- and then how his career progressed soon after that day fuelled my desire to one day go to France and actually cover the race. It also stoked hope that I would be there should Anderson win it.

Anderson never became the first Australian to win the Tour, but the hope turned real in 2011, when Cadel Evans finally won it after finishing eighth on his debut in 2005, fourth in 2006 and second in 2007 and 2009; and that "something' in the Tour sees me returning this year for the 28th time. Cadel Evans celebrates after winning the 2011 Tour de France. Michael Steele/Getty Images The Tour: The highs to the lows Still, it has been a roller-coaster journalistic ride between my first 1987 Tour and this year's 103rd edition that starts at Mont Saint Michel in Normandy on Saturday. Anderson's 1981 success was the catalyst to me leaving Australia in 1987 to live in Europe for nine years, first as editor of the English edition of Winning Bicycle Racing Illustrated in Brussels and then as the European correspondent for the American publication, VeloNews.

But for all the races those years living in Belgium and then France led me to -- from the one-day spring classics to week-long tours and world championships that during that time were held beyond Europe and as far away as Colombia and Japan -- the Tour was always the summit of a season. It was to cycling what the Super Bowl and grand finals are to football, but held every day for three weeks -- not counting rest day/s -- or close to four when I first covered it in 1987. Ever lasting are the memories of the Tour -- some better than others -- that I have returned to year after year writing for various publications, now including ESPN.

Five key stages that could shape this year's race Chief among those memories are that first 1987 Tour won by Irishman Stephen Roche, whose race diary I wrote for Winning (often with both of us sitting in the gutter in a time before the team buses of today); the 1988 race won by Pedro Delgado of Spain, who had lost to Roche the year before; and 1986 Tour winner Greg LeMond when he claimed his second and third wins - in 1989 after being shot in 1987 while turkey hunting in the U.S., when he surpassed the French race leader Laurent Fignon on the last day's time-trial into Paris to win by just eight seconds. Those were memorable years. Then in 1990, the five-year reign of Miguel Indurain began, after which the dark clouds of doping rolled in and pushed the Tour into the blackest years in which many riders were caught up in drugs scandals.

The scandals included expulsion from the 1998 Tour of the French Festina team for doping, the 2006 Operation Puerto drug probe, and Lance Armstrong's 2012 doping confession that saw him lose his record seven Tour titles from 1999 to 2005 and banned for life. The Tour: Cause for cheers and, sadly, tears The Tour has not just been about doping controversies, as much as some may argue otherwise. While skepticism about performance will likely remain as a consequence of doping in the sport, there has been plenty of cause for laughter, cheers and, sadly, tears. You can't help but laugh at some of the funny antics that can go on in a race. Likewise, at what happens among the hundreds of thousands of spectators who line the roads to watch it. Their thunderous cheers reflect what the Tour is all about: It's not just a celebration of human endeavour, but also of La Belle France - her produce, terrain, culture and history. Albeit with rider safety on a rapidly thinning line, the antics of some fans increasingly draws anger. But fans are not always to blame.

Who will forget the 1994 Tour when a policeman stepped out right into line of the peloton to take a photo as it sprinted to the finish of stage one into Armentières, causing a massive high-speed crash. Or in 2011 when nearing the final and most crucial kilometres of stage nine to Saint-Flour, the driver of a French television car side passed the lead five-rider break, and struck and sent Dutchman Johnny Hoogerland into a barbed wire fence and Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha to the ground. To another extreme, there are moments of sadness in the Tour -- tragedy, too, as the 1995 Tour reminds with the death of Italian 1992 Olympic road champion Fabio Casartelli. Castartelli was just six days from earning his first Tour finish when he crashed on the descent of the Col de Portet d'Aspet in the Pyrenees, 30km into stage 15 from Saint Girons to Cauterets.

The moment in time when then Tour race director Jean-Marie Le Blanc announced Castartelli's death on race radio, after he had been evacuated to hospital by helicopter and as the stage continued on towards its finish, lasted barely 15 seconds. But LeBlanc's words, in the heaviest and saddest of tones, still ring hauntingly loud for me to this day. "We have some sad news to give regarding the rider, No.114, of team Motorola. Due to the injuries to the head, Casartelli has lost his life." As strong was the emotion of all in the race - from those in official, media and team cars following the race as they absorbed the shock, to the riders as they learned of Castartelli's fate after being dropped and told of it. The emotion was similar a day later, on stage 16 from Tarbes to Pau that on paper was the hardest but also fell on the hottest of summer days.

The peloton, taking charge of the day from organisers, produced one of the most beautiful yet heart-rending tributes for Castartelli, 24 and a married father of a baby boy, by opting to ride the stage slowly and as a virtual cortege before beckoning his Motorola teammates to ride off the front to the finish with one kilometre to go. Lance Armstrong tries to hold off tears as a minute's silence is observed after the death of team-mate Fabio Casartelli in 1995. PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images Etched in memory, too, is the image of Casartelli's Italian roommate, Andrea Peron, crossing the line first in a stage race organisers declared unofficial. As strong was the image of Casartelli's bike on the Motorola team car as it drove onto the Champs Élysées on the final stage into Paris -- fittingly with a black ribbon attached to it.

The Tour: More than a bike race But as every year passes, I am reminded that covering the Tour is not just about writing about the world's biggest bike race; from its scandals and controversies to the theatre of brazen attacks, impressive stage wins and ultimately overall glory for one when it finishes in Paris. For all, it is also about the adventure, the camaraderie among those with whom you travel in a shared car to and from the 21 stage starts and finishes and hotels in a journey that for a 3500km race can amount to 5000km by its end. It is about the banter, the blend of humour and various musical tastes, and even the personal habits -- the good and bad. It's about the over-booked hotels, closed kitchens at dinner time, the traffic jams and rollover of wearing clothes twice before washing them for the first time on a rest day. There is the test of one's patience when things go wrong, and one's ability to laugh or to take a deep breath when really you feel like screaming, especially when the normally simplest of problems seemingly become harder as the race continues; or to support a colleague whose day has gone awry.

It is also about the moment you get to stop and appreciate the beauty of where you are -- especially when alone, such as the time you get to go for an early-morning run or walk in the mountains or a forest or by the coast. Likewise, there are also times you stop and appreciate how your life at times when the Tour passes or stops at some of the economically and socially deprived areas of France for logistical reasons, to fit in with the Tour route planned well in advance, yet also driven by organisers wanting to support to areas and people in need. The Tour de France may be just a bike race, and forever a dirty one to its detractors. But in the big picture, in many ways it is a microcosm of the bigger and troubled world we live in. Like human spirit, the Tour will never be free of foibles or flaws. So does that mean we abandon it? After almost 30 years of experiencing its highs and lows, I am prepared to go the distance in a race that one can love and hate, pending the day ... well, at least for now!

Stephen Roche: I had people spitting rice and wine in my face | Sport | The Guardian Cycling Stephen Roche: I had people spitting rice and wine in my face It is 25 years since the Irish cyclist's spectacular triple crown win, but he still cannot escape accusations of doping Stephen Roche ranks winning the 1987 Tour de France as his greatest achievement. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian Monday 4 June 2012 12.04 EDT First published on Monday 4 June 2012 12.04 EDT Share on Messenger Close If someone described the scenario to me now I'd be out of there," Stephen Roche says as he takes off his shirt. Naked from the waist up, Roche begins to detail the ordeal he endured when winning cycling's triple crown of the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the world road race in the space of a few brutal months in 1987. Roche is already an hour late for his own party, and the launch of a revealing book which celebrates the 25th anniversary of that iconic achievement, but he is bruised on the inside.

Earlier in the day he helped bury his mentor, Claude Escalon, the old Frenchman who had given Roche, a young Dubliner, his chance to make a living in the hard and often crooked world of professional cycling. Roche is grieving and in the mood for serious talk. There is no shyness in the 52-year-old as he strips off and changes out of his funeral clothes. But instead of joining everyone waiting expectantly for him at the launch, Roche talks for over an hour about the summer that changed his life and the allegations which trailed him in later years. Despite the magnitude of his feat, matched only by the great Eddy Merckx, who won the triple crown in 1974, shadows stretch across Roche's story. The charge of doping, with apparent proof of his use of EPO in the faded days of his career, haunts Roche. Yet, initially, he is consumed by the bitter rivalry that marked his victory in the first race of his extraordinary treble. "Today I wouldn't have been able to stand what happened to me in the Giro," Roche says after he was threatened and vilified by irate Italian fans of his team-mate Roberto Visentini.

Roche took the race-leader's pink jersey from Visentini when, while disobeying team orders, he broke away in a dramatic example of his individuality. "For the rest of the Giro I had people spitting rice and wine in my face, and Visentini plotting revenge. Back in 87 I said: 'Do what you want. I ain't going home.' That's a tough statement and maybe it comes from this hard streak in me. I wasn't giving in." Only one member of Roche's team supported him. Eddy Schepers, who had ridden with Merckx, was the Belgian domestique who remained loyal to Roche. "Eddy took a great risk for me," Roche says of Schepers' support while he and Visentini battled on one climb. "Eddy could have gone – no problem. It caused a big stir at the time. "I took hold of Visentini's handlebars and made it clear that if he tried anything that dangerous he'd be going over the side with me. I always remember these helicopter shots they took of us. It must have looked ridiculous – two team-mates fighting each other.

"But the most dangerous moment was when the fork of my bike broke and we were going down fast. I knew something was wrong. But if I'd shouted: 'Roberto, I think my bike's broken', he would've just attacked me. I'd seen a lot of bad crashes but I couldn't panic. I realise now how close I came to a terrible accident." His Tour de France victory is remembered most for his epic battle against Pedro Delgado on the gruelling stage to La Plagne. "I suffered a lot," Roche says. "I saw the opportunity on Madeleine and pushed myself to an extreme that I wouldn't have done today. In 1987 I didn't have any race radio to rely on. I was good on the tactical and psychological side and I just went for it. If I'd had the kind of info they get on the Tour today I might have eased off when I was just 30 seconds down on Delgado. But because I thought the gap was so much bigger I kept grinding on. "I was in survival mode. I didn't even register what I'd done. It was the journalists who knew. They were so shocked because they all thought Delgado had won the Tour that day.

It was only when someone shouted: 'Roche is coming … Roche is coming', that they suddenly turned to see me. They had to rewrite their stories." After passing out soon after he crossed the line, Roche entered Tour folklore. "About 45 minutes later, when they took the oxygen mask off, this French TV crew came to me and said: 'Stephen, can you reassure the fans that everything's OK with you?' I said, in French: "Yes, everything's OK – but I'm not ready for a woman tonight.' It was just my sense of humour after the suffering. "That's why the Tour means the most to me. People who are really into cycling talk about the world championship the most – because it completed the triple crown. But for me it's the Tour because it was beamed into millions of homes for three weeks." Roche pauses when reminded that his landmark is now shrouded by the fact that, in 2000, an Italian judicial investigation concluded that a sample of his blood contained EPO. It came from 1993 – his last year in the peloton while riding for Carrera. "There's nothing you can do," he says. "People can say what they want.

But EPO wasn't around in 1987. We're talking about the end of my career with these allegations. Why would I go down the road of EPO when there was no pressure on me any more? I had no ambition to win. I just wanted to ride my bike. It doesn't make sense that I would start doping then." David Walsh, Roche's first biographer, published the findings which seemed to indicate clear guilt. "David found all these code names which he said pointed to my name. But that's not proof I took EPO. David damaged me a lot. He damaged me for life." Roche's rather uncertain defence is that the blood samples were also used for university research. "Yes," he nods. "When the case came out I rang Giovanni Grazzi – our doctor at Carrera – and asked: 'What's going on?' He explained that we'd had monthly blood tests where they would test us for simple things – like the level of iron in our system – and once that had been done the samples were used for research. The blood was contaminated and that's why the graphics were so inconsistent. "How can I defend myself? I can't give any proof.

It's the same with the fact there was other stuff around in 1987. How can I prove now that I was clean? They didn't store urine and blood samples from those days. The most important thing is that I'm at ease with my conscience." Wounded by Walsh and his former team-mate and friend, Paul Kimmage, the Irish writer who has campaigned for years against doping, Roche insists on his innocence. "When Paul wrote his book [Rough Ride – an insider's account of life on a drug-riddled tour] I came out of it well. Paul was my room-mate and had known me for years. He didn't say anything bad about me in the book. But what made me despise him then was that he was asked on TV: 'What about Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche taking stuff?' Paul said: 'I can't answer that.' I reacted fiercely but what I regret now was my naivety then. I had my head in the sand about doping." Can he understand why so many people are now utterly cynical about the excuses peddled by cyclists found with drugs in their system – from contaminated blood to, in the more recent case of Alberto Contador, contaminated meat?

"Others have been found with positive proof. With me there are just uneven charts and guesswork with code names. Personally I'd say that in my day 10% of the peloton were doing it and 90% were suspected of doing it. In the late 1990s it was at its worst. We had 90% doping and 10% suspected of it. Today I hope it's gone back to the first – if not better." Roche is outspoken when considering the prospects of Bradley Wiggins in this year's Tour, which starts on 30 June. "He can definitely win it. But it will have to be this year. Contador is back next year and he's a strong time-triallist and has more zip than Wiggins in the mountains. Wiggins will climb with the best of them but Contador has zip. [Andy] Schleck has zip too, but he loses 10 minutes in the time trials. "If Wiggins wins, I don't think it will be a bad thing. But it'll also maybe not be such a good thing for the sport because he has a bit of a showbiz attitude.

We see him at some of his press conferences – and I'm not saying he's wrong because some of these internet journalists ask stupid questions – and he lacks respect for the media. Look at last year's Tour de France presentation. A journalist was building him up and Bradley said: 'You've said it all – I've got nothing left to say.' Pop stars do that, not an educated cyclist. It's OK giving off this image of being a rock star – but you've got to respect people. He speaks French but he didn't try speaking one word of French. He shut the journalist up and made him look stupid." I point out that, in my experience, Wiggins has always been an open and expansive interviewee but that this year he has been especially driven in his training. "You can be focused, but there's always time to be decent to everyone. But hats off to Team Sky and Dave Brailsford. He said he wanted a British winner in five years. He could have two in the next three. I really like Chris Froome [who finished second, ahead of Wiggins, his third-placed team-mate, in last year's Tour of Spain]. That showed Froome's potential. Wiggins is a sure bet.

But Froome can prove it again this year. As long as he stays the really good, genuine guy he is now I think it would be great for the Tour if he could win it one day." Roche believes his 27-year-old son, Nicolas, has the ability to "become a top-five finisher in the Tour de France and top three in the Tour of Spain. I think he can do something special. But I'm hard on him. Hard but honest. I tell him that nothing but a top-three placing matters. No one cares if you finish 16th on a Tour of Spain stage." That hardness underlined Roche's triple crown 25 years ago, and it has resulted in his divorce from Nicolas's mother, Lydia. Does he regret his selfishness? "No," Roche says quietly. "There was selfishness and, yes, my wife made great sacrifices. I sometimes have a face-to-face with myself and ask what I would do differently if I had to do it all over again. And there's nothing I would really change.

The way I did it made me who I am." Stephen Roche's Born To Ride is published by Yellow Jersey Press 10 memorable moments from the Tour de France | Cyclingnews.com 10 memorable moments from the Tour de France Tour countdown: five days to the Grand Depart 1 / 11 Laurent Fignon has just lost the 1989 Tour de France by eight seconds at the conclusion of the final day's time trial. (AFP) UCI president Hein Verbruggen with Lance Armstrong in 2002 (AFP Photo) Lemond and Hinault were teammates but also rivals (Sirotti) Spain's Miguel Indurain celebrates his fifth consecutive win in 1995 (Fotoreporter Sirotti) Claudio Chiappucci demonstrated the aggression (AFP) 6 / 11 Italy's Eros Poli descends Mont Ventoux, heading for a stage win in the 1994 Tour de France. (AFP) 7 / 11 Anquetil was terrific in the race against the clock and he could use those time trial abilities to break away in road races, too.

(Mainstream Publishing) Pedro Delgado leads Stephen Roche during the 1987 Tour. (AFP) 9 / 11 Laurent Fignon and Greg LeMond on the final podium in Paris at the 1989 Tour de France. (AFP) 10 / 11 Bjarne Riis won the snow-effected stage to Sestriere in 1996 and claimed the yellow jersey in the process (AFP) 11 / 11 Bjarne Riis (Telekom) leads Berzin during a short but heroic defence of the yellow jersey in 1996 (AFP) In the latest of our special Tour de France countdown features, Ellis Bacon looks back at 10 memorable moments from the 99 editions of the Grand Boucle. Related Articles Tells us which is you memorable moment in the comments section below. 1910 “You’re all murderers!” The high mountains first featured in the 1910 edition of the Tour de France , with the introduction of the Pyrenees. But far from providing the spectacle they do today, back then they simply added to the brutality of what was already an extremely tough race.

The unmade roads forced most riders to push their bikes up the climbs, and prompted eventual 1910 winner Octave Lapize to crest the Col d’Aubisque on foot while famously shouting, “You’re all murderers!” at the race organisers. The Alps were introduced in 1911, but their green, magisterial beauty seemed to enchant, rather than anger the riders. The two mountain ranges have remained key battlegrounds at the Tour ever since. 1913: Christophe fails to forge victory In 1913, 10 years after the first edition of the Tour, French darling Eugène Christophe was hoping to go one better than his runner’s-up positioning 1912. The Tour had been decided on points then, but was decided by accumulated time in 1913 and the Frenchman was a big favourite. However, the clock was ticking when poor Christophe’s forks broke on the descent of the Col du Tourmalet and he was forced to run with his bike until he found a blacksmith’s forge at which to effect his own repairs. He fixed his forks, only to be disqualified for having received ‘outside assistance’ from the blacksmith’s apprentice.

1964: Anquetil and Poulidor duke it out on the Puy de Dôme Jacques Anquetil always had his rivals’ measure in the time trials, and it was perhaps for that reason that the Frenchman allowed compatriot Raymond Poulidor to eventually ride away as they approached the top of the Puy de Dôme on stage 20 of the 1964 Tour. But not before photographer Roger Krieger captured the iconic image of the two rivals bouncing off each other as they battled for superiority on the climb’s narrow roads. By the top, Anquetil still held a slim 14-second lead over Poulidor — ‘The Eternal Second’, who would never win the Tour — and added to that lead in the final time trial to Paris, where he won the race by 55 seconds to take his fifth and final Tour title. 1986: LeMond and Hinault match each other on Alpe d’Huez Accepting Greg LeMond’s assistance to win the 1985 Tour was supposed to mean that Bernard Hinault would return the favour in 1986.

Yet the famously aggressive Frenchman had other ideas when the time came — the chance of winning a sixth title proving a massive incentive. But after a tense duel, stage 18 to Alpe d’Huez proved to be the moment when Hinault would accept that his young American teammate was the better rider. The two matched each other pedal-stroke for pedal-stroke up through the climb’s famous 21 hairpin bends before crossing the finish line arm-in-arm — although ‘The Badger’ made sure he squeezed his wheel across the line first to become the official stage winner. 1987: “That looks like Roche!” “Just who is that rider coming up behind? Because that looks like Roche. That looks like Stephen Roche... It's Stephen Roche!” Cycling commentator Phil Liggett’s hugely entertaining words did justice to a performance sure to live on as one of the Tour’s greatest efforts.

Stephen Roche, the Irishman who became the Emerald Isle’s first, and still only, Tour de France winner, dug deep into his reserves to peg back rival Pedro Delgado on the slopes of La Plagne, emerging from the mist to that famous commentary before collapsing on the ground, where he was administered oxygen, and all but winked at his fans at home. Roche had saved his Tour, and in spectacular fashion at that. 1989: A tale of ponytails and tri bars There’s definitely a bit of an eighties theme going on in this top 10, but that’s because that decade’s Tours were that good. However, 1983 and 1984 Tour champion Laurent Fignon’s ponytail was a fashion choice that might just have lost him the race in 1989. Compared to American Greg LeMond’s aerodynamic ‘triathlon’ handlebars and aero helmet, Fignon’s long blond hair and round spectacles seemed to invite the air to slow him down during the final time trial that year. But with a 50-second buffer, Fignon’s lead seemed insurmountable.

“He’s bouncing off the barriers!” a delirious Liggett exclaimed as the Frenchman emptied himself during the last couple of hundred metres on the Champs-Elysées. Eight seconds before Fignon crossed the line, LeMond started celebrating; it was the closest Tour in history, and arguably the best there’s ever been, too. 1992: Hysteria on Sestriere as Chiappucci comes home Claudio Chiappucci’s successful lone breakaway to Sestriere on stage 13 of the 1992 race provided some of the most extraordinary scenes ever seen at the Tour. The Alpine climb takes the riders into Italy, and so the Italian climber could count on plenty of support from his compatriots that day. Thousands turned out, and when the race’s lead motorbikes were blocked by the sheer volume of spectators, Chiappucci was in danger of being mobbed and disappearing into the crowds completely. Lucky, then, that he was clad in the red-polka-dot jersey as ‘king of the mountains’ — a jersey that can apparently be spotted from space.

1994: Poli conquers the Ventoux If Mont Ventoux is ‘best’ remembered for the death of Tom Simpson, then Italian Eros Poli’s 1994 escapades on its slopes goes at least some way to redressing the balance towards more celebratory memories. The Italian giant took on ‘The Giant of Provence’ in a battle everyone was expecting the rider to lose. With a 25-minute lead over his pursuers at the start of the climb, Poli dragged his huge, tired limbs up and over the Ventoux, and was still able to celebrate his stage win in Carpentras with a buffer of over three minutes on the chasers having risked everything on the descent. Stage 15 of this year’s Tour will hopefully provide more stunning scenes on the Ventoux that will also be remembered for all the right reasons. 1996: Indurain’s reign reined in His face was almost unreadable in every one of his victories from 1991 to 1995, but Miguel Indurain’s expression said it all on stage seven of the 1996 Tour.

Indurain had arrived at the Tour fit and well having won June’s Dauphiné Libéré, and, despite his third place at the 1995 Tour behind Indurain and Switzerland’s Alex Zülle, there was little to suggest that Bjarne Riis might go two better in 1996. But on the road between Chambéry and Les Arcs — that year’s first mountain stage, Indurain’s Tour untouchability suddenly left him. He cracked, ceding almost three-and-a-half minutes to Riis. The next day, the Dane took another 26 seconds out of the Spaniard in the time trial — unheard of — and by the end of the following, snow-shortened stage to Sestriere, Riis was in yellow. 2003: Armstrong has a field day We can try to write Lance Armstrong out of Tour history when it comes to the results, but it’s far more difficult to ignore the myriad images of him in yellow.

Arguably the most memorable one that will infamously live on as a reminder of his presence is of him plunging down through a field in order to avoid a stricken Joseba Beloki, who’d crashed on the descent of the Col de la Rochette, near Gap, on stage nine of the 2003 Tour. The fact that Armstrong almost seamlessly rejoined the road after leaping across the ditch at the bottom of said field made it look like he could do no wrong... Ellis Bacon is author of new book Mapping Le Tour (Collins), which details the geography of the Tour de France, with a preview of the 2013 edition and a section on the race’s most memorable battlegrounds.

Lance Armstrong's Tour de France victories should stand, say former champions - Telegraph Lance Armstrong's Tour de France victories should stand, say former champions Twelve former Tour winners say disgraced Texan deserves to keep his seven tainted Tour titles Lance Armstrong should be given back his Tour de France titles, according to 12 former winners Photo: AP By Tom Cary , Cycling Correspondent, in Oyonnax 9:40PM BST 16 Jul 2014 Follow Lance Armstrong should be handed back his seven Tour de France titles, according to 12 of the 25 surviving winners of cycling’s biggest race. As this year’s Tour reached the Rhone-Alpes region of eastern France on Wednesday, with an 11th stage from Besancon to Oyonnax, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf published the results of a survey it conducted with the surviving winners of the race. Only Ferdi Kubler and Roger Walkowiak failed to respond, and of the remaining 23 more than half were of the opinion that the disgraced American should be rewritten into the history books. “Armstrong should stay on that list,” said the Irishman Stephen Roche, who won the Tour in 1987.

“In the 100-year history of the race you can’t not have a winner for seven years. Doping has been part of sport, not only for cycling, for decades. Who tells me Jacques Anquetil won clean? Should we take his victories away? Or why does Richard Virenque get to keep his polka dot jerseys?” After years of denials and lawsuits, Armstrong was eventually brought down when the United States Anti-Doping Agency published its so-called reasoned decision, in which it accused the seven-time champion and his US Postal team of “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen”. Armstrong, who had already been issued a lifetime ban from all sports that adopt the World Anti-Doping Agency code and stripped of his seven Tour titles, subsequently confessed. Related Articles Lance Armstrong: 'I'd probably cheat again' 26 Jan 2015 Those who felt that Armstrong should keep his titles were generally of the older generation, riders such as Felice Gimondi, Federico Bahamontes, Jan Janssen and 1980 winner Joop Zoetemelk. “They should never have erased Armstrong from the list.

You can’t change results 10 years later. Of course it’s not good what he did but you can’t rewrite history,” Zoetemelk said. Of the more recent winners only Andy Schleck and Oscar Pereiro felt Armstrong should keep his wins, with Schleck, who won his 2010 title after Alberto Contador tested positive, saying: “Who remembers who was second place in those races? I wouldn’t know myself. You can’t have seven races without a winner, so just leave Armstrong on the list.” British winners Chris Froome and Sir Bradley Wiggins have both spoken out numerous times on this issue and they, like Australian Cadel Evans, are adamant that the Armstrong years (1999-2005) should serve as a reminder to current riders. “Those seven empty places symbolise an era. We should leave it like it is,” said Froome. Both Evans and Wiggins added that sending back the yellow jerseys might be a symbolic gesture. Armstrong himself was contacted by De Telegraaf for a reaction but said he would “keep it to myself for now”.There seems little chance of the 42-year-old being reinstated.

Tour director Christian Prudhomme said that public opinion would not allow it. “You ask the people along the route,” he said. “It’s clear, his name will not be on the list again. Period.” Brian Cookson, the president of the UCI, has long encouraged Armstrong to speak to the independent commission [CIRC] set up to investigate cycling’s doping past. The Englishman said in a recent interview that he did not know whether Armstrong had yet done so. Cookson did admit, however, to errors in the UCI’s handling of the recent controversy over Froome’s use of a Therapeutic Use Exemption for corticosteroids to treat a chest infection during his Tour of Romandy win earlier this year. Although the UCI’s decision to grant the TUE was given the all-clear by Wada, it later emerged that the TUE was signed off by just one man, the UCI’s chief medical officer Dr Mario Zorzoli, rather than by a committee of experts, as recommended. Cookson admitted he did not even know before the controversy arose whether such a committee even existed. The UCI has since pledged that all TUE applications will go through a panel.

Explaining the delay in the UCI’s response to the controversy, Cookson said: “I wanted to make 100 per cent sure that the TUE committee did exist. That its members were aware that they were members. And we’ve checked that through now and they do exist and they have all reaffirmed their willingness to participate in that process. “We’ve reinforced and reinvigorated the process. And I accept that we needed to do that.”

Question: Who in 1987 was the first Irishman to win the Tour de France
Answer: Stephen Roche